Fly Away Art Journal Cover

Today I have an altered book cover or in my case, an altered art journal cover, as this particular book is one that I am going to use for that purpose, but first I wanted to decorate the cover!

I'll be using this hardback sketchbook.  I think it might be a Derwent sketchbook but there is no label on it any more so I can't be sure.  It is also approx A4 size (21.0 x 29.7cm, 8.27 x 11.69 inches).

I will also be using this chipboard set - Collage Frame Birds & Ivy - which I had originally thought of using on something else (a tag) but then decided to make it the focal point of this cover instead.  I cleaned off the edges and then painted it with white gesso.

Once it was dry, I painted it with Paperartsy Fresco Chalk Paints in purples and greens.  Here's how it looks against the sketch cover - just a final check of the position to make sure it fits the way I want it to.

Then I painted the sketchbook cover with white gesso and left it to dry.

My plan for this cover was to use some of my gelli prints as the backgrounds.  I have two full A4 size prints that I can fit one on the front (shown below) and one on the back cover.  They are not the same colour, but they are in the same colour family, and the technique used creates a wood plank background. 

I glued them both on to the sketchbook cover using collage medium.

To add more interest to the background, I added some texture paste through two different stencils from Finnabair's collection.  A text stencil in the centre and a wild berries stencil around the outside.

Here's a closer look at the scripty word stencil.

And here's how it will look with the chipboard frame over the top

I decided I didn't like the white edges, so I painted around the edges with more Fresco paint in a combination of purple shades, just using my fingers instead of a paintbrush.

Here's a look at both the front and back covers - I did have to use a small paintbrush to touch up the edges under the spiral binding since my fingers are not that small!

Here's a closer look at the spine, looking very gritty and textural, just the way I like it.

It was now time to adhere the chipboard to the cover and I did this using soft gel and to ensure that it stayed in place while it was drying, I put some heavy objects on top to hold everything down.

This little frame comes with extra birds and extra ivy, both of which I wanted to add on top once the frame was attached to the cover.

Once the frame was attached it looked like this, so now all I needed to do was plan out where to put the extra bird and ivy pieces that I wanted to use.

I positioned the bird in the middle and added the ivy pieces on top and bottom, with the two single leaves in front of the two lower birds, as though they were perched on the leaves.

I glued them down using more soft gel and some heavy weights to hold them in place while they dried.

Make sure to leave plenty of time for the glue to dry and it will hold everything in place beautifully, but until it is dry, be careful not to move anything accidentally!  Here's my finished frame layout.

I felt like my cover could use some words so I used some of these Finnabair word stickers and stuck them on the frame.  These stickers were originally a cream colour so I painted them with the same paint as I used on the frame, only diluted a little with some water to allow the text to show through.

And that was my art journal cover finished and ready to use!

I hope that you found this tutorial useful and inspiring, if you are looking for ideas for your own book covers.

Elle

Empire of the Cat

PROJECT RECIPE:

Collage Frame Birds & Ivy
A4 notebook (or book of similar dimensions)
White gesso
Collage Medium
Soft Matte Gel
Fresco Chalk Paints
Texture paste
Gelli print backgrounds (already made)
Finnabair word stickers, stencils

Fall and Winter Altered Notebooks - Christmas Gift Ideas - Part Three

Hi friends,

I'm here with my final notebook gifts tutorial to share with you all, this time using a 3D tree chipboard in a different way than intended!

So here we go!  As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to make some custom notebooks for some Christmas gifts and I thought the notebooks would be easy to post and easy to customise to each person.

Here are the notebooks I'm using, which are A5 size, and a popular size with bullet journalists so you will probably know the size I mean.  It's approx 5.5 x 8.x inches. The process is the same so I started by painting the covers with black gesso, to give myself a good, primed base especially as these are clothbound books.

While that was drying, I sorted through my chipboards and selected a few that I might potentially use, keeping in mind the person for whom they were intended.   I had already made this notebook and this notebook and also this notebook. For these final two notebooks I am using fall and winter inspired chipboard elements and sharing this 3D tree chipboard between the two books.

This chipboard has two parts that slot together to make a standing 3D tree, but I decided to cut both parts down the centre and then line up the matching pieces to make a double thickness and glued them together. If you didn't want them as thick as this, you could actually make four tree notebooks, using one half tree on each.  I wanted a little more dimension, so I doubled them up.  You can see the double thickness in the photo below.

For the winter notebook on the left, I also used three snowflakes from the Snowflake Shape set, and some die cut letters using some cereal box cardboard and glued everything down.  Then for the fall notebook, I also used two words from the Fall Words set - FALL and MEMORIES - and glued everything in place.

On the back cover of the notebook, I used an A5 sized wood slice stencil and some paper texture paste to create a dimensional pattern on the Winter notebook...

and the Fall notebook...

Leave the paper texture paste to dry and then paint everything with black gesso.

Now it was time to start painting!

I painted the Fall notebook with this gorgeous golden brown metallic acrylic, then used a Metallic Russet to paint the words.  Here is a look at the back cover which is stencilled with the texture paste and then painted.

The fall cover - complete or not complete?  I can't decide!

I felt like it needed something more in the cover so I die cut these leaf clusters and painted them with a variety of gold and copper metallics.

Then I cut them into smaller leaves and drew some veining on them with a dark brown pen.

I kept two leaf clusters whole and stacked and glued them together.  Then I punched a hole near the top and attached it to the bookmark ribbon which is part of the notebook.

And here is the finished Fall notebook.

Now it was time to focus on the Winter notebook.

For this notebook, I used this great icy blue metallic paint for the cover, and then used silver metallic paint for the snowflakes and a dark teal metallic paint for the text.

I hope you enjoyed this project and that it has given you some gift ideas for reasonably quick and customisable gifts that can be used all year round, but are perfect last minute Christmas gifts that can be tailored to the recipient.

Till next time,

Elle
Empire of the Cat


PROJECT RECIPE:
GSL Cuts - Snowflake Shape Set D38A, Fall Word Set D81E, 3D Chipboard Tree 6" C1B,
A5 clothbound notebooks
Black gesso
Finnabair Metallique Paints
Jacquard Lumiere metallic paints
Tim Holtz Handmade font dies
Glue
From Stash: cereal box cardboard

Favorite Recipes Altered Notebook - Christmas Gift Ideas - Part Two

Hi friends,

I am deep in gift making mode still so I have more notebooks to share with you, this time using some cool baking-inspired chipboard elements.

So here we go!  As I mentioned in my last post, I decided to make some custom notebooks for some Christmas gifts and I thought the notebooks would be easy to post and easy to customise to each person.

Here are the notebooks I'm using, which are A5 size, and a popular size with bullet journalists so you will probably know the size I mean.  It's approx 5.5 x 8.x inches. I started by painting the covers with black gesso, to give myself a good, primed base especially as these are clothbound books.

While that was drying, I sorted through my chipboards and selected a few that I might potentially use, keeping in mind the person for whom they were intended.   I had already made two notebooks and was now on to the third. I wished that I could think of something for my third notebook which was for a friend who has just become head lunch lady at her kid's school.... Of course - the Kitchen Utensils set would be perfect! I was on a roll!  I also used Favorite Recipes for the title on this cover, and lined up the cord from the hand mixer so it looked like it was attached to the F in favorite.  This Favorite Recipes Title shape actually comes with a wooden spoon along the bottom of the Recipes word but I had to cut it off so I could arch the letters and make them fit on the cover.  I added the spatula and spoon to the bottom for the cover and glued everything down.  Then I used a few more of the utensils on the back cover.  There is one more shape left, an oven glove, which you will see at the end, but that also got painted with gesso!

Normally this is my favourite part of the process but this time I just didn't seem to be able to decide how to paint this one!  So rather than paint with metallics, I decided to try matt acrylic in a nice light blue that was giving me 50s Diner vibes and thought it would go well with the recipe book idea.  So I painted it blue...

I left it to dry overnight but in the morning I wasn't so happy with the colour - well that's not exactly true, I do love the colour but not for this project.

Time was not on my side and I was very conscious of the pressure of needing to get this finished and posted!  With that in mind, I painted it yet again...

This is much better!  I used a gorgeous teal metallic acrylic and painted the entire cover and left it to dry again.

Then I used silver metallic paint and old silver wax to colour and highlight all the little elements on the cover.  I like to use my fingers for this job as they are easier to clean than brushes, though you can use old paintbrushes for this job, or stippling brushes also work quite well.

If you want a less organic approach, sketch out a plan for your notebook covers, plan and test your colours, assemble all your elements in advance, and then glue them down and gesso them all at the same time.  As I started off with the intention of making Christmas cards, I did not have a plan in place for notebooks but was still able to make it work!

Oh and just because I felt like it needed a little more personal touch, I added her name onto the rolling pin using some Tim Holtz dies, and I also used the oven mitt chipboard from the set, and covered it in embossing powder, and tied it onto the bookmark ribbon as a little extra!

I hope you enjoyed this project and that it has given you some gift ideas for reasonably quick and customisable gifts that can be used all year round, but are perfect now for Christmas gifts that can be tailored to the recipient.

Till next time,


Elle
Empire of the Cat


PROJECT RECIPE:
GSL Cuts - Favorite Recipes Title D54I, Kitchen Utensils D54J
A5 clothbound notebooks
Black gesso
Finnabair Metallique Paints
Finnabair Impasto Acrylics
Finnabair Wax
Jacquard Lumiere paint
Tim Holtz Alphanumeric dies
Wow embossing ink and embossing powders
Glue
From Stash: cereal box cardboard